Jack and Lil
by Sue-Drae
Summary: Muggleborns sort of have to expect the unexpected when it comes to new ideas. Lily Evans was no exception. Magic is real? No problem. The quiet guy over there is a werewolf? Sure. Jack Frost is real? Why not. Nothing else seems to make much sense anyway. One-shot
1. Goodbye, Green Eyes

Over the years, Jack had gotten to know so many little nooks and crannies of the world. He saw places that shouldn't have existed, met people that couldn't be real, and shared in their secrets.

So many years passed and everyone seemed to forget about Jack Frost but, in isolated pockets of the world, there were people who had the potential to believe.

Scotland was home to one such pocket.

The first time he stumbled upon the run down castle, Jack had been inclined to keep going. They were just ruins, after all. But that was just a glance. A second glance, then a third, and the disrepair fell away. The empty courtyards filled with children, the abandoned hallways roaring with sound. _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._ It was a strange name, but a good one.

In hindsight, Jack shouldn't have been surprised. After all, _he_ existed.

He learned everything he could about the culture behind these strange and colorful people. He watched as tyrants rose and fell, governments forming and devolving until the Ministry of Magic reigned supreme, and watched generations pass through the halls of Hogwarts.

Muggleborns were a special thing. From a non-subjective point such as Jack's, it was easy to see that Muggleborns weren't exactly that. Sure, the parents of these children couldn't wield magic, but what about their parents? Grandparents? Somewhere in the line, Jack could find a link and trace it to that smiling and hopeful child buying their first wand.

Lily Marie Evans was one of the rare handful who inherited the gift from an ancestor. She was one of the even more rare few that, upon learning about magic, decided to fully open herself to the idea of _everything_. Even an old rumor about a mischievous winter spirit.

"Why aren't you in your robes?" were the first words Lily spoke to Jack. He had been lounging in a tree on the grounds, watching the first snow of the winter dancing on its way to the ground, when she stopped at his tree. "And how did you get up there?"

"What?"

After three hundred years, silence had been the norm. There were other spirits Jack could talk to, not to mention the Guardians, but why bother? They were too old, too boring, too... _believed_ in. It hurt to spend time with those that could be seen.

Lily Evans didn't seem too surprised to learn who Jack really was, because who was she to judge? No one else believed but, after years of living under her sister's thumb, Lily liked having something all to herself. If Prat Potter got into a few more dangerous snowball fights on the way, it wasn't really her concern.

There were a few snags with no one else believing in Jack Frost, though. If the prim and proper Lily Evans started getting in on pranks, people would assume she went off the deep end. If she went out into a snowstorm, her friends went looking for her. If Lily didn't have an official maid of honor because she wanted to torment Jack with the duties entailed, feelings were hurt. All in all though, they had a strong friendship and a happy one. Until it ended.

Jack hadn't been there that Halloween, of course. He had a job to do and the end of October was always a busy time of year. That wouldn't mean he'd ever forgive himself.

No Lily was bad enough. No Lily meant that no one would be able to see him anymore. No Lily meant that, if Harry ever looked at Jack, he would look through him. He would look through him with Lily's eyes.

So he stayed away. The trips to the United Kingdom got shorter and shorter. Hogwarts was all but forgotten as the winter spirit returned home to Burgess. If the wind blew harder and the snow heavier... Well, no one was the wiser.

A/N: For a place in Scotland, Hogwarts was never shown to get a lot of snow and I thought that was a little odd. It's already established headcanon (oxymoronic, I know) for me that Muggleborns are more open or receptive to news ideas simply because they have to be so I thought, why not throw Jack Frost in? Feels followed shortly thereafter.


	2. Hello, Harry

A/N: Hello there! I will be 100% honest in saying that I really never intended on furthering this story. It felt pretty closed to me that Jack turned the page on that and tried to just block everything out. It would have stayed as a one-shot but then someone PMed me about happy endings and this quickly followed.

So, if you wanted a happier ending, it's all thanks to Parallel Parabox :)

Jack measured years the way people- _normal, living people_ \- didn't. He kept track of each winter that had passed since waking up in that froze lake but, for the most part, he didn't spend too much time dwelling on time. The one time of the year that truly held a draw for him, for better or for worse, was Halloween. It worked like clockwork; every year, people would start putting up those stupid looking nylon spider webs and start carving the pumpkins and Jack would be forced to remember.

He would remember Lily. Most of October was spent reminiscing on the good times- watching and hanging out with the Muggleborn throughout her Hogwarts years. He recalled teaching her how to ice skate and how hilarious it was that he had _finally_ found something she wasn't automatically brilliant at. He remembered the wedding and all of the stories that, for his own mental health, couldn't be retold to another soul. He remembered hearing that she and James were expecting a baby boy.

But then October would come to a close and the good memories would fade. Jack would be forced to remember that he had failed her. That he wasn't there. He would be forced to remember coming to Godric's Hollow, happier and lighter than he'd felt in years, only to see the house torn asunder. He would be forced to remember the half-giant- Hagrid- pulling that tiny baby from the wreckage of the much-loved cottage.

It was harder knowing the true meaning behind Halloween and Samhain. According to tradition, Halloween should be the time that Jack felt closest to Lily but it was at that very time that she was farther from him than ever. It was on Halloween that he knew, without a doubt, that those piercing green eyes would never look at him again.

But he still counted the years since that fateful Halloween. One, two, five, ten, twenty. They all came and went and the hole in his heart scarred over. It ached but, for the most part, it was manageable.

He began to come back to Hogwarts during October. The snow slowly started to return to the school, even if it always melted on Halloween day, as Jack allowed himself to wallow in the good for as long as possible.

He was never truly alone at the lake anymore. The wise old man who had served as headmaster had long since passed and he was buried in a pearly tomb by the lakeside. Though he didn't remain as a ghost, Jack still could feel traces of the former headmaster's presence as the school year began and he made it a habit to come back each year, just to feel that sense of warmth flow through his cold veins.

One day, over twenty years after Lily's... After _Lily_ , Jack returned to the lakeside only to freeze. Another had joined his watch over the lake, standing next to the tomb with one hand resting gently on its smooth surface, his back to Jack as he stared off into the forest. After a moment's hesitation, Jack alighted down quietly beside the lake, knowing that the man, whoever he was, wouldn't be able to notice him.

"You're a student, aren't you? Why aren't you wearing your robes?"

Something caught in Jack's throat as the words slowly registered and, as he turned to face the stranger, those words from all those years ago danced in his mind. " _Why aren't you in your robes?"_

Jack forced himself to look at the man's face and his heart, if it were beating, would have skipped a beat. There, surrounded by James Potter's stupid hair and beneath a curiously shaped scar, were the eyes of Lily Evans. And they could _see him._


End file.
